Gold climbs above $1,620 an ounce as euro holds ground

MUMBAI: Gold rose above $1,620 an ounce on Thursday, extending four sessions of gains, as the euro held its ground against the dollar in choppy trade ahead of this weekend's Greek elections, with a surge in Spanish borrowing costs stoking risk aversion.

This week's gains were firmly underpinned by speculation that the Federal Reserve would unveil a fresh round of quantitative easing, which roughly translates into printing money, after weak retail and inflation data on Wednesday.

Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,620.50 an ounce at 1140 GMT, while US gold futures for August delivery were up $2.10 an ounce at $1,621.50. Spot prices are up 1.6% this week, but trading is cautious ahead of this weekend's Greek elections.

Among other precious metals, silver was down 0.3% at $28.85 an ounce, while spot platinum was up 1.3% at $1,477.74 an ounce and spot palladium was up 0.2% at $618.40 an ounce.

Oil for July delivery was at $82.67 a barrel, up 5 cents, in electronic trading on the NYMX at 12:20 pm London time. It earlier fell 0.4% to $82.27. The contract slid 0.8% on Wednesday to $82.62, the lowest close since October 6. Prices are down 16% this year.

Brent oil for July settlement dropped 34 cents to $96.79 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange. The more actively traded August future fell 38 cents to $96.34. The European benchmark contract's premium to New York-traded West Texas Intermediate was at $14.12, compared with $14.51 on Wednesday.